Our Best Friends

Tagore & Sikhism

by SARAN SINGH

The following article is
excerpted from the text of the Raghunath Reddy Memorial Lecture
delivered by
the author at the invitation of Dr Pratap Chandra Chunder,
scholar-statesman
and former Union Minister of Education, in his capacity as Chairman,
Rabindra
Bharati Society, at Kolkata, on January 18 2003. The author owes a debt
of
gratitute to Mr Rajat Das Gupta for the
English translation of Tagore's prose and poetry in his book "The Eclipsed Sun" (Vasco Books, Kolkata).

As a student
of
literature, I recall the letter Rabindranath Tagore wrote to the Viceroy, whereby he relinquished his Knighthood in
righteous protest against the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

Tagore described the
tragedy as "without parallel in the history of civilized governments."

Looking
back, his anguish continues to reverberate in the corridors of history,
for he
articulated the axiomatic human longing for liberty, justice and
dignity. Now,
more than eight decades later, his admonition of the colonial superpower
still
rings true, as the people
of Iraq face invasion and occupation by a "power which has the most
terribly
efficient organisation for destruction of human lives." (Tagore's words from
1919).

The poet had, by
his dignified
protest, re-awakened the conscience of the Indian nation and won the
heart of
every patriotic Indian. As a document of conscience, Tagore's letter
seems to
have provided inspiration for the universal declaration of Human Rights
which
was later adopted by the UN on 10th December 1948. The Preamble
of the
UN declaration says likewise:

"Whereas recognition of the inherent
dignity and
the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is
the
foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world ..."

My other early
favourite
quotation from Tagore is from his book of poems, "Naibedya,"
titled Prarthna:

"Where the mind is without fear

Head held high for a vision clear

Of a world unfragmented

By parochial
walls elated ..."

Its moral grandeur
resonates
with Gurbani's soulful prayer:

(Slok
M.5 - SGGS:
1251)

Gracious Lord, be Merciful,

Keep all creaures in Thy care.

Bless us abundabtly with food and water

Rid us of
pain and poverty (of spirit) ...

[M5, GGS:1251]

The Sikh
inspirational
scripture wisdom, embodied in Guru Granth Sahib, is the poetry of pure
devotion. T.S. Elliot reaffirms this, when he wrote: "True poetry merges
the
morality and the aesthetics. The human concern elevates poetry into a
higher
kind of morality."

Tagore's poetry does exactly that.

Gurbani,
however,
needs to be approached with love, devotion and humility. Only then its
power to
illumine our hearts and minds can sweep away the cobwebs of doubt and
duality,
dispel discord and discrimination.

Many years were to
pass before
I discovered Tagore's extraordinary "love affair" with Sikhism, and the
legacy
of Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh, from his autobiography.

In the
1870's,
Tagore's father, Maharshi Debendranath, who was among illustrious
pioneers of
the Brahmo Samaj [Lit. ‘The Society of God'], used to visit Amritsar
periodically
in quest of divine inspiration. For some time, the Maharshi's personal
attendant
was ‘a fine featured young Sikh'. Rabindranath - barely ten years old -
recalls
his visits to the Golden Temple (that we call Harmandar, or Darbar
Sahib)
thus:

"The
Gurdwara at Amritsar I remember as a dream. Many were the mornings when
I went
to the Sikh temple set within a lake. Singing of bhajans was
continuous.
Seated in the midst of the Sikh worshippers, my father would join them
in song,
and they would greet him with cheerful cordiality."

Rabindranath also
recalls that
his father would often invite one or another of the raagis -
singers - to
his house for kirtan sessions. Evidently, these memories of his
youthful
experience not only lingered in his mind but also made a deep impression
on
him. We are told that, as a teenager, he rendered into Bengali several
hymns (pauris)
from the Japji, some of which would then be sung at the Sunday prayer of Brahmo
Samaj.

The late Prof.
Amalendu Bose,
writing in the Calcutta-based Journal, The Sikh Review, in
the 1970's, tells us that the "pure monotheism of Japji appealed deeply to
the
monotheistic mind of the young poet ... Guruji's beautiful exhortations
to the
Sikhs to abjure all that is false and narrow, and to imbibe all that is
truly
unifying and comprehensive were the qualities that won the poet's heart."

Permit me to quote
just one of
the hymns in Japji:

"So dar ...

What kind of doorway, what kind of
mansion?

Where You sit and care for Your creation!

Where melodies of countless strumming
instruments,

And
countless minstrels playing on it are heard.

In how many raags and raaginis is Your
adoration sung?

And how many celestial musicians sing of
You?

There, even
wind, water and fire glorify Your name ..."

In a manner of
speaking, Japji
is theology for everyman, a kind of universal adoration of the
all-pervading
Spirit of God.

"There is only
One Being, who is the Creator and the uncaused
cause of all. He has created the whole universe through his vital Will
which is
diffused throughout. The
Absolute is beyond words, nameless, imageless.
When he caused this universe, His Word was the cause."

For the first time the divine splendour was spelt out
in the
common man's language. Guru Nanak replaced the worship of countless gods
and
goddesses with the adoration of one God.

Guru Gobind Singh re-affirmed
this
precept: " The Lord of
all the worlds is One. He is nirankâr, Formless, without physical
attributes. He is not born, nor does He die to be born again. He is
self-existent."

I would like to
believe that
Sikhism's appeal for Tagore was rooted in his childhood memories of the
radiance and cadence of gurbani kirtan that he imbibed with his
father
during their sojourns in Amritsar. The musical Baul tradition of Bengal
and
Maharshi Debendranath's Brahmo-Samaj background seemed to cement a bond
with
the Sikh legacy. Like the Baul idealism, the Sikh philosophy embraces
all human
societies, recognizing the ultimate unity of the Supreme Being - who is
all-pervading - best realised experimentally in the core of the human
heart!

Tagore's own
devotional poetry
is replete with intimation of gurbani: Let me illustrate:

Jodi e amaro hridaya -

duaro bandha rahe go

Kabhu dwar bhenge

Tumi asho, more prané,

Phiria
jao na, Prabhu!

The lyricism of
these poems,
time and again, recall to mind gurbani's compelling, concise
and
coherent enunciation of life's moral purpose. Guru Granth's
versified
message likewise packs astonishing spiritual power and majesty. In so
far as
the holy text is set to symphonic raags, its appeal is to the
deep faith
residing within every heart, not just the intellect. The holy word
affirms
that the human being in devotion is capable of realizing
God - Howsoever subtle and incomprehensible He may be, for the True
devotee He
is not impersonal:

The
Guru says:
Thou, O Lord, are beyond conception, unfathomable and profound. Yet to
Your
True Devotee, You are fully manifest,
stripped of all veils, ever in effulgent glory! [GGS:1299]

Let us now turn to Tagore's felicitous prose, his
essays.

For
Sikhs, and indeed for all people, Tagore's essay on Guru Gobind Singh
has a
special significance - both in timing and content. It was written at a
time
when the sun had set on the Sikh kingdom of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and
the
Punjab, Kashmir & the Frontier Province had been annexed by a wily and
deceitful British Governor General, Lord Dalhousie. The Maharaja's
youngest
son, Duleep Singh, still a minor, had been whisked away to England, then
ruled
by Queen Victoria. With him also went the legendary Koh-i-Noor,
robbed
from the Lahore Treasury.

Tagore's essays on Guru Nanak
and Guru Gobind Singh, in simple idiom and direct style, seem to
be
meant for the younger generation of Bengalis. Perhaps Rabindranth sought
to
focus on the piety and moral grandeur of Guru Nanak, as also the
matchless
sacrifice and valour of Guru Gobind Singh that transformed Sikhs into saint-soldiers.

The essay on Guru Nanak tells us of the extraordinary child, son of
Kalu, born
in Talwandi, who, as a youngster preferred to spread God's holy Name,
instead
of becoming a businessman earning gold. Tagore mentions Guru Nanak's
journey to
Mecca, where fellow-travellers objected to his feet stretching towards the holy
Ka'aba,
the house of God. Nanak sweetly begged them to kindly turn his feet to
any
direction where God was not!

Tagore's
Essay concludes with a gem:

"The Sikhs whom you see around you today
are men
of sturdy build, handsome countenance, of tough strength and unflinching
courage. They are sishyas - disciples of Baba Nanak. There were
no Sikhs
before Nanak. It was his noble personality and sublime spirituality that
brought this race into existence. It is through his teachings that their
temper
is fearless; they keep their heads erect; their character and
countenance are
brightened with magnanimity."

[Translation
by the late Prof. Amalendu Bose]

This
characterization remains
unexcelled in Indian literature. In Katha-o-kahini (tales and
legends), Tagore has also immortalized
the legends of Banda Singh Bahadar and Bhai Taru Singh - both 18th century
heroes of Sikh history. For steadfastness in the face of stark tragedy, ‘Bandi
Vir'
(Chained Hero) stands out as poetry of perennial inspiration.

Similarly
the
story of Taru Singh - Prarthanateet Daan -
in terse and taut poetry, symbolizes not only the grim determination but
also
the rejection of tyranny by the young Sikh who won't part with his beni,
- the kesh, that is integral to the Sikh discipline and indeed
cherished
by all human beings.

Tagore's contribution to the understanding of the
mystique
of Sikhism, its theology and history, is a precious part of Indian
heritage. At
this point, let me recall to you Tagore's Essay on Shivaji & Guru
Gobind
Singh, writtten in the mid-1920's.

In the minds of most people, the image of
Guru Gobind
is that of a warrior-Guru. Tagore speculated that the "Tenth Master" had
"deviated" from Nanak's Path of peace and goodwill for humanity at
large.
Indeed Tagore said: "the role of warrior does not belong to a Prophet
but to an
army general." Here, one wonders why a comparative view escaped Tagore.
Sri
Krishna's advice to Arjuna on the battleground of Mahabharat
reverberates
throughout the corridors of time.

Guru Gobind had echoed
the precept enunciated by Guru Nanak:

"I have no other
ambition than
to struggle for righteousness."

It is scarcely realized what mental anguish Guru
Gobind Singh
must have gone through before he finally accepted the principle of use
of force
to right a wrong, the same dilemma that confronted Arjuna in the field
of
Kurukshetra in the Mahabharata. How is one to decide whether one should turn
the
other cheek; to submit to oppression and tyranny - in the hope that
his
gesture will bring a change of heart in the oppressor? Or that one
should
resist tyranny, and ensure restoration of justice and goodness, however
long
the struggle!

Guru Gobind Singh faced this dilemma. His father, Guru
Tegh
Bahadar had been executed in Delhi's Chandni Chowk for no other offence
than
championing the cause of the Kashmiri Pandits who faced forcible
conversion -
or extermination. Long before Guru Tegh Bahadur, the fifth Guru, Arjan, the
builder of Amritsar's Harmandar, had been convicted of trumped-up
charges and
tortured to death at Lahore in 1605 during the Mughal reign of Jahangir.
Both
Noor Jehan and Mian Mir had protested, but to no avail.

It was no longer a time for turning the other cheek.
On Poila
Vaisakh in 1699, Guru Gobind Singh instituted the Khalsa Panth as his
response. He redeemed his pledge - oft quoted by Swami Vivekananda -"savaa laakh sey ek ladaa-oon .."

As Tagore's essay records, Shivaji clearly and
unabashedly
wanted to establish Hindu sovereignty. Guru Gobind Singh, on the other
hand,
fought defensive wars. His Zafarnama, addressed to Aurangzeb, in
1707,
spells out his compulsions:

ba lachargi darmian amdam

ba tadbiro teer-o-tufang amdam

chun kar az hama hilatey dar guzasht

halal ast
burdan ba shamsheer-dast

The Mughals, Lodhis, Afghans and Baluchi hordes had,
for
centuries, and repeatedly, invaded the Indo-Gangetic plains unhindered,
and massacred,
rampaged and looted the people. It is nothing short of miraculous that
these
invaders were beaten back by Guru Gobind Singh's Khalsa warriors and
pushed
across the Khyber pass - beyond the frontiers of the subcontinent. It has never been
fully
appreciated by conventional historians that the Sikhs of Guru Gobind
Singh
forever put an end to the brutalisation of the subcontinent's masses.

Most significantly, Guru Gobind Singh took special
care that
anti-Muslim sentiment should not stain his crusade against the tyranny of
the
later Mughals. Both Hindus and Muslims fought shoulder to shoulder with
Sikhs
in each of his defensive wars. This secular tradition continued into the
times
of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, (1799 to 1849) who was - as pointed by
Jawaharlal
Nehru in his Discovery of India - one of the few genuinely
secular
rulers of our country.

Guru Gobind Singh had intense faith in his own divine
mission.
He forbade his soliders from looting and made them take solemn vows that
they
would never molest women or kill a fleeing adversary. No wonder he
inspired an
incredibly fierce sense of loyalty and sacrifice.

The story is told of
an old
woman who came to Guru Gobind for help. She told him that her husband
and two
sons had been killed fighting the aggressors. All that remained of her
family
was her youngest son, who was dangerously ill. She begged for the Guru's
blessings to restore him to health - not to have someone to look after
her in
old age - but in order that this son too could attain martyrdom in the
battlefield!

The New Millennium is, in many respects, the age of
conflict,
alienation and anxiety. The unlettered masses cling to superstition and
look
for supernatural intervention for being rid of their woes. Arguably,
‘globalization' has failed to provide moral and social justice. Instead
it has
spawned a type of religious fundamentalism that threatens the very
existence of
civilized society.

It is in this context that the Guru Granth and
Sikhism
become relevant, and the Gurus' message a moral imperative. In any
re-assertion
of the moral and spiritual principles, therefore, we must gratefully
acknowledge the contribution of Sikhism, as well as the spirit of
‘kavi-guru'
Rabindranath Tagore.

The author, Sardar Saran Singh (I.A.S. Retd.), is a former Secretary to the Government of India and the Chief Secretary, Bihar. He is currently the Editor of The Sikh Review and President of The Sikh Cultural Centre, both of which are based in Kolkata. At the beginning of 2010, he was honoured internationally by being named one of three Chic Sikhs of the Year 2010.

[Courtesy: The Sikh Review]

May 17, 2010

Conversation about this article

Balraj Sahni, who was already an accomplished actor, came to Tagore to seek his blessings to become a writer. The desire to write was tugging at Balraj's heart. Gurudev Tagore asked Sahni, which language he will write in. Balraj Sahni answered, "Hindi". Tagore ji asked him why not Punjabi? Balraj Sahni was taken aback, he had thought of Punjabi as a language of the Sikhs -a common feeling among Arya Samaji Hindus. Tagore ji encouraged Balraj Sahni to write in Punjabi. Balraj Sahni then got himself a typewriter in Gurmukhi and day in, day out, practiced the Gurmukhi script. He then went on to write some very good books in Gurmukhi/ Punjabi. He wrote about his travels in Pakistan; he traveled in Punjab and collected proverbs, etc. Thanks to Gurudev Tagore, Balraj Sahni produced some great literature in Punjabi/ Gurmukhi. My salute to a great man.

I agree with Surinder of Massachusetts. Credible, original thinkers, writers, creative artists and clowns, yes, clowns are like that, because they are not in the 8 to 8 or 9 to 5 jobs, they are leaders, they devote to thinking, writing on a full time basis, like Tagore, the Nobel prize winner, who gave Gandhi the name of Mahatma. And Tagore was, and a number of his contemporaries, the noted Hindu/ Muslim/ Bengali intellectuals I came across as a student at St. Xavier's College, Calcutta, were also fascinated by the Sikh religion, and they respected the Ten Gurus and gurbani passionately. Tagore's other famous lines are 'ekla cholo, ekla cholo ...' - walk alone, walk alone! A new country always revels in its wonders. By the way, our living Sikh intellectual, Saran Singh, who I met in Los Angeles, has finer English than Tagore! And Balraj Sahni's reply to Tagore was typical of the Arya Samaj influence in him and the Samaj's in-tolerance of Sikhi. But the fact is Sahni rose beyond it and followed Tagore.

Thank you for posting this article. Tagore has always been one of my favorite writers and his poetry has inspired and touched me. "Where the mind is without fear ..." is my all-time favorite. Now reading about his gesture following the Jallianwallah massacre elevates his status in my heart and mind. Thank you for sharing.

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